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Friday, July 17, 2009

The start of a new journey...

After prodding from several sources and reading another blog started by a friend of a friend, I decided to start my own. That way any and everyone can read about what we've been through, where we are now, and what lies ahead.

Boy meets girl:

Kurt and I met at UGA in 2001. After 2 years of dating, Kurt popped the big question. We got married on a cool November day in 2004; 3 years to the day of our first date. Here we are sharing one of our very first kisses as the new Mr. and Mrs.

On the move:

In 2005 we decided our apartment was too small so we started looking for a house. We found the perfect 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in Suwanee. Although we only lasted there 11 months because I took a transfer with my company. Kurt and I were off to Newnan and found a second perfect house in March 2006.

Starting a family:

Kurt and I always talked about having a family but really got serious about our plans after we'd been married for about 2 years. We took a cruise shortly thereafter to "kick off" the baby making efforts. At first it was all fun and games but as the months went by with no success we started to wonder if there was something wrong. Several months and several doctors later, our problems were mostly blamed on PCOS, a disease that affects a women's fertility. The doctor started me on several medications but none proved any success. A girlfriend of mine recommended a doctor at Emory in Atlanta. After meeting with him and even more testing, we were told IVF was our best option.

We did it!

Our first round of IVF in July 2008 was tough. So many injections, so many doctor's appointments. I was cranky, bloated, uncomfortable, and more. I didn't know anyone else going through it, so I often felt very alone. Kurt was as supportive as possible, but even he did not understand the physical and emotional roller coaster I was on. In the end, we transferred 2 perfect looking embryos. And one of them stuck. We were pregnant!

The bumpy road ahead:

Pregnancy wasn't quite what I expected. Between 7 and 8 weeks I started getting the worst morning sickness. Only it wasn't confined to the morning. It was all day long sickness. I was miserable! I was so thankful to Kurt for taking care of me. He is a saint! Other than that things were mostly uneventful until the day of our "big" ultrasound. On that day found out our daughter had passed away in utero. The next day I was induced and delivered our little girl Leyna Koenig. I spent a few minutes with her and then said goodbye. This was officially the worst day of my life. I just felt broken.

Moving on:

Months went by before either one of us felt semi-normal again. A lot of tears were shed and a lot of healing took place before we wanted to go down that road again. But in March 2009 we decided to give it another try. This time was much easier because I had been through it before and because the regiment was less involved as we had frozen embryos left over from our first IVF cycle. On March 30th we transferred 3 of our frozen embryos into my womb. Unfortunately we did not get lucky this time. We did not get pregnant. In May, we tried again this time transferring 3 perfect embryos from a fresh cycle. This one was the jackpot! Pregnant!

Not quite what we expected:

On July 2nd we had our very first ultrasound to get a look at our little baby. But as the scan started, it quickly turned into something quite unexpected. Luba the ultrasound technician asked me "How many did you want?". That was a very strange question. She then turned the monitor toward me and I could see all 3 perfect little babies. I left the doctor that day in shock. I'm not sure how many times I looked at that ultrasound but it was a lot! So here we are. Just 6 weeks into what will be the most amazing journey we've ever been on. Come follow along!